Explore the Outdoors with PBS KIDS

Spring is finally here!  PBS KIDS is celebrating the outdoors with some of your favorite PBS KIDS series.  Find fun activities, games and TV schedules that encourage a love of nature at Explore the Outdoors.  On this specialized section of the PBS KIDS website, you’ll find dozens of games that related to learning from the environment and the animals that live there.  Here’s just a sampling of the activities you’ll find there:

• In the Park with Skits from Martha Speaks
• Wilson and Ditch’s Junior Ranger Game
• The Cat In the Hat Knows A lot About That’s Huff-Puff-a-Tron

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PBS KIDS launches Play & Learn App

PBS KIDS has launched PBS Parents Play & Learn, its first app designed specifically for parents to help them build early math and literacy skills for children 4 and under.  The app provides interactive activities to help parents turn everyday tasks into learning opportunities. PBS Parents Play & Learn is available for FREE for iOS, Android, and now on Google Play and on the NOOK Store^™.

The app provides more than a dozen games parents can play with their kids, each themed around a familiar location, including the grocery store, restaurant or home. The app not only provides games, but gives parents advice on adapting these games in real-life settings and the option to receive push notifications with more tips for building skills. The app divides activities into three stages: baby, toddler and preschool.

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SUPER WHY! Storybook Creator

Encourage your preschool students to play the Super WHY! Storybook Creator, an online game to practice reading and writing.  Through play, children will discover that they have the power to change the story.  Students first pick a story that they would like to work with and then have the opportunity to change the story as they go along to make it their own.  Games like this one from PBS KIDS support preschoolers’ emergent literacy skills.  Check out more at the PBS KIDS Lab.

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Report: Early Education Linked to Economic Development

A recent report released by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst outlines a very important connection between early childhood education and prosperous economic development.  According to economist Arthur MacEwan:

“It is highly desirable and valuable to society for state governments to support universal early childhood education. In doing so, governments will be putting in place an essential component of economic development, a component that will provide both a long-run foundation for their states’ economic development and an immediate boost to their states’ economic progress. Moreover, they will be providing an important service to families and strengthening equality of opportunity.”

You can check out the full report here or read more on the Eye on Early Education blog.

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Continue the winter fun with OH NOAH!

Coats, gloves, and hats are essential for any snowy adventure! Gear up for a visit to the Arctic with Noah and learn the Spanish words for winter apparel. View the webisode Breaking the Ice and then dress your own Noah Paper Doll! What should he wear today? Color and design Noah’s clothing with vibrant colors and cool patterns.

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Science in the Snow with Sid the Science Kid

Winter may be in full force but the science learning continues with Sid the Science Kid.  Sid offers online games with a winter theme and a science focus.  Play with snowflakes and learn about symmetry.  Explore temperature by sorting plants, animals, and objects into their proper climates.  You can even extend the learning with the Temperature Investigation by learning how to use a thermometer to measure the temperature of hot and cold items.

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Free Professional Development Resources from PBS LearningMedia

PBS is eager to support your efforts both inside and outside of the classroom.  At PBS LearningMedia you can explore hundreds of free professional development resources.  Here is just a sampling:

Reading Buddies: Anna  (For K-2nd grade teachers / Video / Reading fluency)
Watch as an older student models fluent reading with a kindergarten-aged English language learner (ELL). Notice strategies such as page-turning prompts that make the experience more effective.

Setting Up a Book Corner  (For PreK-2nd grade teachers / Video / Classroom) In this teacher training video, Theo the Lion interviews Kimberly Triplett of the Early Childhood Institute at Mississippi State University who describes how successful book corners have been set up in learning environments, childcare centers, and home daycare facilities.

Benefits of Curriculum Mapping   (For K-13+ / Video  / Video Sequence)  With this resource group, teachers can explore the benefits of curriculum mapping. This group includes a review of how curriculum mapping can influence a school, a video example of a horizontal curriculum map, and a video example of the optimal group configuration for the read-through of a curriculum map.

Build a Rubric  (For 9-13+ / Video)  Rubrics provide students with clear expectations and consistent feedback. Build a customizable rubric that can be used for any writing activity your class might be completing.

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New Courses from PBS TeacherLine

With the potential challenges of winter weather, online courses can be the best way to meet your professional development needs.  Offering courses with the quality you expect from PBS,  TeacherLine’s Winter Term begins on January 23rd. You can explore the full catalog of online courses to discover what courses will serve your teaching practice.  In addition to the many courses that educators continue to value, here are two new ones:

MATH522: Teaching Math (Grades K-2): A Special Collection from Annenberg Learner
For K-2nd grade teachers | 45 Hours | Syllabus | Sign Up
This inquiry-based course offers math teachers a deep-dive into the NCTM process standards. During the course, teachers will explore ways to expand their practice, and develop lesson plans for each of the five standards.

SCIE572: The Habitable Planet: A Systems Approach to Environmental Science-A Special Collection from Annenberg Learner
For 9-12th grade teachers | 45 Hours | Syllabus | Sign Up
This course helps to provide a background for understanding and discussing the different Earth systems: geophysical systems, the atmosphere, the oceans, and natural ecosystems. Examine the unique characteristics that make our planet habitable and investigate the effects of human activity on different natural systems.

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Sneak Peek at Enhanced Version of PBS LearningMedia

PBS LearningMedia is your destination for easy, instant access to tens of thousands of classroom-ready, digital resources including videos and interactives perfect for the Interactive Whiteboard, plus audio and photos, and even in-depth lesson plans. You can search, save and share and, best of all, this digital media content library is free for educators!

PBS LearningMedia is launching an enhanced version of the site in a few weeks, and you can get a sneak peek of the preview site now. We hope you like the new look and feel of the PBS LearningMedia site and suggest that, if possible, you try viewing it on your tablet for an optimized experience. Explore great new content collections like these:

• Environmental Public Health
• Freedom Riders
• American Masters
• Martha Speaks
• From the Top at Carnegie Hall

While you may notice bugs in this preview site, PBS is working hard to fix them as they’re discovered, and we thank you for your patience as PBS LearningMedia is improved.

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Good Tidings from PBS TeacherLine

Over 1000 teachers in our region have taken PBS TeacherLine online professional development courses, offered in a wide range of content areas for preK-12 teachers.  To help spread the good tidings of the holiday season, PBS TeacherLine is offering a $30 discount off most graduate-level courses to all alumni and registered users.

To receive this discount on winter courses that begin on January 23, 2013, you must register by December 31, 2012.  For a special promo code that must be used for registration, please contact me  in WGBY Education and Outreach Department:  bkapetanis@wgby.org 413.781.2801, ext. 292.

Here’s just a sampling of PBS TeacherLine winter courses, all of which you can view by going to the online catalog:  UNST125 Building Critical Thinking Skills for Online Research (Grades K-12); MATH410 Seeing Math:  Linear Functions (Grades 6-12); RDLA157 Teaching Phonemic Awareness and Phonics (PreK-3); SCIE564 Structure of the Earth System – Special Edition: Teachers’Domain, Produced by WGBH Boston (Grades 5-12); SOST502 Bridging World History:  A Special Collection from the Anneberg Foundation(Grades 9-12).

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